THE dancing genre was first popularised in the arcades. Gamers would venture down to their local amusement park and make an absolute fool out of themselves jumping around and dancing to an awfully cheesy pop song.

A few years ago the dancing genre was brought to the PlayStation and now, as it grows ever more popular, we're simply getting flooded with dance games.

Konami's Dancing Stage Fusion is by far the best dancing game available and Konami have wasted no time in producing sequel after sequel in a bid to take as much money off the dance genre addict as possible.

To be honest this would not be so bad if the games were not so similar. The aim of the game is very simple, press the right buttons at the right time.

Using the dance mat, gamers can have a reasonable amount of fun, if this is their type of game, there's even the option of connecting up the EyeToy so you can watch yourself gallivanting around the room and working up a nice sweat as the dance routines get progressively harder and faster.

There's a variety of modes available but, aside from the new mini games that are as demanding as snap, Fusion offers very little that has not already been offered time and time again.

Impressively there's more than 20 licensed tracks already in the game, but don't get your hopes up as it's only the likes of Atomic Kitten, Jamelia and various other overplayed tunes.

The best songs on offer are from The Darkness and Electric Six, but one can't help but feel that this game would be more suited to the likes of EBM so that people could really get into the swing of things and crazy dance around the living room like Switch!

The dancing genre only really caters for a small section of the gaming public. Even music wise it is very limited.

If you aren't a fan of pop then you will not enjoy this, although it would be interesting to see if, in the future, Konami would ever consider making Mosh Stage Party featuring the likes of Children of Bodom and Emperor.

If you are new to the genre and curious about trying a dancing game then pick this up, but if you already own a Dancing Stage game or have no interest in the genre then this isn't worth your time or your cash.

PRICE: £24.99

AGE RATING: 3+

GENRE: Dancing

FORMAT: PS2

GRAPHICS: 16/20

SOUND: 15/20

GAMEPLAY: 19/25

LIFESPAN: 17/25

ORIGINALITY: 3/10

OVERALL: 70%

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